The Return of the Brain!

[elfs]

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques Were Borrowed from Communist Chinese Manual.

In what has to be one of the most disturbing reports yet, Scott Shane reports that the techniques used on Guantanamo Bay prisoners are exactly copied from a manual of torture techniques used on political prisoners in China. "The only change made in the chart presented at Guantanamo was to drop its original title: 'Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.'"

We were the good guys, once upon a time.

"The Dark Art of Interrogation"

Tim Burke also frets over the moral heart of America, and points to Mark Bowden's Atlantic Monthly article in which Bowden tries to reassure Americans that we're using torture morally, professionally, and only when necessary. Yeah, I believe that. (via Brad DeLong)

Jesus's Followers May Have Borrowed A Messianic Cult Tradition

Fascinating. A stone tablet dated from before Jesus's birth shows that at least one Jewish cult (and there were many in the religiously fractious period of the Roman occupation) believed that the Messiah would come, die, and rise from the grave three days later.

The interpretation is controversial and very much up for debate, though.

Why Is the State Department "Hunting" for Deals for Bush's Oil Buddy?

Since when did our diplomatic corps turn into the business development wing of one of the company of one of Bush's best donors?

David Ignatius: Cheney Can't Even Get Potentially Illegal Covert Ops Right

I love the new term, "The Barnacle Branch," to describe the Vice President's Office.

Christina Comer Sues Texas Education Agency Over Illegal Firing

Comer was fired after she forwarded an email to other members of her department, the state's science curriculum group, informing them that Barbara Forrest, a historian who specializes in studying the anti-evolutionary movement in America, would be giving a lecture in Austin sometime thereafter. She's suing them for illegal termination, alleging that they ginned up a false "violation of neutrality" over the evolution vs. "intelligent design" debate. Good for her!

The Growing Debt Held By The Public

Take a close look at this chart and try to remember when Democrats were in office versus Republicans, and then ask yourself which party has been better for fiscal responsibility. Really. (via Andrew Sullivan)

Comments

[tagryn]

* I don't see the stone tablet re: pre-Jesus Jewish messiahs as being a big deal; there's a long history of Messiah claimants, which is why the Romans considered Jesus just another rabble-rouser. If we don't know much about the ones pre-Jesus, its because other than Josephus, a lot of that history was lost.

* "Take a close look at this chart and try to remember when Democrats were in office versus Republicans, and then ask yourself which party has been better for fiscal responsibility."

Um - neither? It really shows the value of a divided government, since the only downturn came when one party was in charge of the Executive and the other in charge of Congress. It does back up Sullivan's point that Bush II was anything but a fiscal conservative, but I don't think anyone's seriously been pushing that argument for years now, so I think its just Sullivan arguing with himself again rather than adding anything new. Neat updated Perot presentation that it links to, though.